"Ratrock Mountain": An Endless T&T Tunnel Crawl...

I'll be offering a free setting here soon.  This is the one of the main maps, and work is underway.  My plan is to present it, over the years, in levels.  The goal is to make it the largest underground crawl I've ever undertaken; replete with a necropolis, "hells acres", lagoons and other water features, sprawling gardens, teleportation and astral zones, you name it.  My approach to accomplishing this is to offer it in chunks.  In other words, a permanent place to roam around in, with areas mapped out over time as they come to me.   

The background and introduction is forthcoming, of course.  I just wanted to give a preview by unveiling the map I designed for "Ratrock Mountain"!  If you stay up until 4 AM, drink a fifth of rum, turn around in circles 47 times and then stand on your head, holding the map at arms length, you will probably be able to make perfect sense of it.  This is an approach I developed a long time ago...to design something that "makes sense but does not".  It creates an overwhelming sense of sprawling space in the mind of the players and aids in the infinite nature of the environment where "anything is possible".  Not all the maps will be this way, of course, but many are.  The actual exploration areas usually follow a more traditional dungeon style layout.  

Ratty Ron's 36 Weird Encounters!

 

Here ya go.  You can run with 'em from here, alter them, merge them together...go nuts!  Please excuse any mis-spellings and errors.  It's been a tough, long, old day and my eyes hurt even though my normal weirdo switch is on...

Ratty Ron's 36 Weird Potions!

 

What are the full effects and how long do they last?  Short time?  Permanent?  You figure out the details.  In my games there's none of this "sample it by tasting" crap.  You gotta take a swig and find out the effects as the story unfolds, for better or for worse (unless you have some magical way of knowing, of course).  For potions with multiple uses, I'll have the "swig" not count against the number of remaining uses, while the effect plays out.  If it's a one-time-use thing (permanent or not), I'll encourage the full top-off by saying something like, "you are feeling something, but you'll have to finish it off", or something to that effect.  For cautious Johnny-Be-Safe type players, they either have to experiment on someone or something else, or take it to a sage or an alchemist and pay a ton of money to know exactly what they are dealing with.  

To me, potions are one of those things that has to play out at the table, as they always are circumstantial given the situation and the user, so be prepared to house it on the fly.  Remember:  Play the way we used to in the old days and have fun with it!  It's only a game! 

Ratty Ron's 36 Weird Doors!

Roll two different colored six-sided dice.  Decide which color is the first die, followed by the second, and read across. 

Ratty Ron Doodles: Xooxog the Mage

On old T&T notes from 20 years ago and found in the massive notebooks of old dungeons, house-rules and who-knows-what-else...what can I say...I like to "keep it goofy" sometimes.

Ratty Ron's T&T Solo Adventure Booster

 

Well, what do you think?  Too powerful?  I'm going to try it out at least and see.  If you consider that balance isn't exactly a thing in this system (gotta love it!), I don't see any problems.  

Solo Play Mission: Session 6-Buffalo Castle

....Wulfus heads back in through the center doorway...and the fun resumes.  This session was the most fun so far.  I had a lot of battles with wandering monsters, and was doing real well.  I whupped up on a lot of 'em, and found some gold in the process.  Now, Wulfus has decided to head out, but once he gets to the door, he faces a pretty daunting challenge.  Something is blocking his way, and he is largely outnumbered by the dice!  I think this might be the end for Wulfus.  Yep.  He meets his demise at last...chewed to death by a pack of rats.

And, so, that's "Buffalo Castle"!  I'd rate this one as high on the fun scale and fairly deadly.  Wulfus did pretty well for a long time though, and I could see that it was possible to escape, but alas; 'twas not to be!  I'll need to forget my journey and my notes, so I can revisit and try to conquer this one at a later date.  Next, we'll move on to "Deathtrap Equalizer" I think.  I still have Signi the rogue and Willar the warrior, but I can't say I'm too excited about either character.  Korag and Wulfus were more my speed.  

I'll tell you, it might be smart to raise a bunch of these guys with some sort of booster, just to get some edge before they venture into the solos.  I may start working on my own way to do that.  Something not too rewarding, so as to make it unfair, but just enough.